Flipping The Boat | Test Run Disaster

I decided to have a test run for moving the boat out of the workshop onto the driveway, on its wheeled cradle.

I had laid some sheets of Sterling board on the gravel drive to provide a flat surface for the wheels. It was the cheapest sheet material available and I bought six sheets.

My lovely wife Alison advised against this without the assistance of more people, but I went ahead anyway.

There is a raised hard rubber strip across the garage floor, just behind the bottom edge of the closed main door. I installed it to prevent rain ingress, and it does that just fine.

However, as soon as the wheels on the rear cradle hit the strip the cradle collapsed.

The boat was now half outside the workshop with the keel resting on the driveway and the bow still supported by a partially destroyed front cradle.

This was a serious setback. There was no way we could lift the boat by ourselves, and rain was likely.

I should have foreseen this. The two halves of the cradle are held apart by a length of MDF, which is very flimsy and snapped as soon as it met resistance.

We managed between us to raise the stern enough to slide a furniture dolly under the keel, and we then carefully pushed it back into the workshop still supported by the collapsed front  cradle.

Somehow we managed to slide the dollies which I had made for the flip under the keel to support the boat.

I then clamped blocks of wood to the sawhorses to prevent the boat from falling over. Like this.

You can see the rear cradle on the bench with the snapped off MDF spacers.

This is the dolly at the front of the keel, and the partly collapsed front cradle still supporting the boat.

And here is a view from the port side, with the rear dolly clearly visible supporting the stern.

I put a cargo strap around the hull to hold the blocks against the topsides while I made permanent supports to fit on the sawhorses.

Here is a view from port of the fully supported boat.

I also made a pair of keel blocks to take the weight of the boat so I could remove and finish making the dollies. Here they are.

The boat now looked and felt even more stable than when it was on the cradle!

It was clear now that we would have to carry the boat to move it. I guess it was better that this happened now rather than when we make the flip.

Onwards and upwards!